KP: What was the learning curve for you, moving from the stage to in front of a camera?
URBANIAK: It’s kind of a great… I mean, I had done a couple low budget movies before that. One of which was so low budget that it doesn’t almost count as a movie. The crew was, like, the woman who made it and a friend of hers with a boom mic. And it was shot for no money and nothing ever happened to it. And she just kinda got in touch with me. And then I did another movie called The Sticky Fingers of Time, which is a very low budget movie that was a non-SAG production, that was done right before Henry Fool, where I had a good part in that. It’s before I was in the Screen Actor’s Guild. And that movie actually came out and actually has a cult following to this day. It’s a sort of low budget science fiction movie by a very smart director named Hilary Brougher. So I had done a couple of films already. But Hal is kind of a great person, I think, for a young actor who didn’t have a lot of film experience to work with, because he is so precise in the way that he directs. Like I told the story about him saying “get up and walk to the door,” he’s… in a way, he’s very specific and hands-on, and yet it’s also surprisingly freeing, his style of direction. A lot of people see his films and the actors come in and there’s sort of a sense… I think they sometimes come in thinking, “Oh, it’s a Hal Hartley movie. You kinda talk in a deadpan voice, you know?” And it’s like, “Well, no.” You’re not really talking in a deadpan voice. You’re talking, and you’re doing something, and for some reason you’re holding something back. You know, it’s again the old quality versus action thing. So it’s just finding that active reason why you appear to be talking in a deadpan voice. In fact, maybe you want to scream from the rooftop, but you know you can’t, so you have to communicate in a precise way. And that also relates to the way you move. And so he’s got very, very specific ideas, very rigorous sort of ideas about the way you kind of move through space and speak. But he’s also… he has a very gentle approach. He’s got a very light touch, and so he’s a very interesting guy in that way. And I personally just found it very creatively exciting and collaborative. He admired what I had done. I was an unknown actor. He wanted me to be in the movie. He wanted me to play that character, and that was that. He’d seen me on stage, he thought I was good, and that was it. So it was fantastic. It was a very rare opportunity to have a great part like that – and, I mean, that movie started my, you know, like paying acting career. I had acted for many years downtown for no money, quite happily, before I made that movie. It’s also just kinda that the timing worked out. I was 33 when I made that movie. And throughout my 20s I thought, “Well, this is great. I just like doing the stuff downtown, and eh, when I’m in my 30s, I’ll start to make a living at this I’m sure.” But I wasn’t in a hurry to. Sure enough, when I was in my early 30s I made Henry Fool, and that movie coming out allowed me to then make a leap forward in the commercial arena and kind of start to make money. And also, by the time I did Henry Fool, I had slowly started to get into voiceovers already.
KP: So, really it was more a culmination point in the launch of a new phase of your career…
URBANIAK: Yeah, it kind of… it was. It was like everything I knew about acting up ’til then, I put into that movie.
KP: In retrospect, is there anything about the performance you would change?
URBANIAK: Well, you know, it’s kinda fascinating because we just made a sequel to the film.
KP: Right. Fay Grim…
URBANIAK: I kinda feel like every actor looks back at performances, and I can look back at almost everything I’ve ever committed to film and sometimes I go, “I would have done this different or that different.” And I remember at the time, the first time I saw it, I wasn’t sure about it. But now I’m actually very fond of it, and I really feel like, well, it was the right performance for the right time. And I don’t know that I would… there’s really anything in there that I’d want to change. I’m really quite happy with the way it turned out.
KP: How different are you as an actor, comparing, now to then?
URBANIAK: Well, this is fascinating because we made the sequel and I’m playing the same character all these years later, you know, chronologically. And I am a very different actor, and I have different concerns as an actor, but I’m more sophisticated in front of the camera. And also, when I worked with Hal the first time, it was like we said earlier – just kind of like when I was in acting classes, it was kind of like I was a novice. And now when I work with Hal, it’s kinda like we’re two guys who know exactly what we’re doing and we enjoy each other’s company, and we do something. So I felt like I was learning when I did it. When I did Henry Fool I was learning, but the character’s learning. So it was kind of an interesting thing where what I was actually experiencing on the set, and even as the cameras were rolling, was sort of paralleling the fact that the character himself is kind of tentative and learning and slowly blossoming. And so there was something about my situation making the movie, paralleling something about the character, that kind of just made it all come together in a nice way. Although when I made that movie I was very jealous of Tom Ryan, who played Henry Fool, ’cause he had these big flowery speeches. You know, I had played Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest. I liked standing in front of an audience and performing reams of dialogue! (laughing)
KP: Spoken like an actor.
URBANIAK: Like Phantom Limb and his purple way of speaking. So I remember at the time thinking, “Wow, this is great… But I wish I had more to say in this.” And then after that, of course, I got typecast as the sort of, like, quiet weirdoes.
KP: You should have told Hal you’d be the understudy.
URBANIAK: I’m not really a weirdo, and I’m not quiet! (laughing) I’m not at all an introvert in real life. And then sometimes the typecasting was great, like when I was asked to play Robert Crumb in American Splendor. That was a really great weirdo introvert and I was quite delighted to play that, and then I played some others who were not as interesting.
KP: Crumb is quite an iconic weirdo introvert to play, to be sure.
URBANIAK: He certainly is. He certainly is.
KP: Did you have any conversations with him prior to the part?
URBANIAK: With Crumb?
KP: Yeah.
URBANIAK: No.
KP: His choice or yours?
URBANIAK: He lives in France for one thing, and he gave permission for some of his artwork to be shown in the film, but he had nothing to do with it and I’d heard he wasn’t crazy about the idea of a guy playing him, but I did a ton of research. As I said, I’d always wanted to be a cartoonist when I was a young guy, so I already was pretty familiar with him, but I read a ton of his stuff. I read his collection of teenage letters – Your Vigor For Life Appalls Me – which is really fascinating. Sort of a diary of a young fan boy.
KP: What was the thing that surprised you the most – that you would never have thought you would discover about him?
URBANIAK: Well, what was very interesting was I, of course, watched the Zwigoff film over and over. But I found some other video, and I found an audio interview of a radio interview he had done in the 80s, and a big part of that interview was him talking about living in San Francisco in the 60s, and how much he loved it. And he goes on at length about how beautiful San Francisco was and what a wonderful artistic community it was. And how it really was kind of a paradise for him as this young creative guy. And I was really struck by the wistfulness in his voice, and this kind of gentle quality he had there. Which is not a quality you see in the Zwigoff movie.
KP: Right.
URBANIAK: Where he’s certainly performing in that movie, and Zwigoff is presenting a version of Crumb. You know – he’s a filmmaker. It’s a masterpiece, that movie. But I was very struck by this kind of quieter, like I say, sort of wistful aspect, and that just struck me, and so I just thought… I just tried to find… My Robert Crumb in that movie is not Robert Crumb the man – he’s a character named Robert Crumb in a movie called American Splendor. He exists in that movie to tell us something about Harvey Pekar. That’s his function. So, in a sense, you have to do all this research and work and then kinda throw it away, because sometimes the reality of the man doesn’t match the reality that’s demanded of the character in the movie. But the fact was that the scenes in that movie were me with a close friend. And the directors also had ideas about the Crumb archetype. He’s this kind of cool, detached character. But just hearing him talk about San Francisco just made me think about, you know, more of the kind of warmer qualities than, say, the cooler ones that we see from the Zwigoff movie.
KP: Sort of the humanity behind the façade. Had you ever heard what Crumb thought of the performance?
URBANIAK: Well, I’ll tell you. No I haven’t. There’s this Robert Crumb collection that’s sort of an oral history that he wrote that came out a couple years ago, about his entire career. It’s a sort of an autobiography. A friend of mine emailed me and he said, “The Robert Crumb book, page 547,” or whatever page it was. And that was the contents of the email. And I thought, “Oh my god, he’s talking about American Splendor.” So I go to the book store… my friend’s leaving me hanging. It’s like, “Go look at this page of the new Robert Crumb book.” So I go… hold on a second. Alright. I open it up, there’s a picture of me in American Splendor, and at the top of the page it says, “I thought the guy was a wash out as me.” I thought, Oh, god! And then I noticed that that’s the conclusion of a sentence on the previous page that’s actually talking about a play where some other guy played Crumb. (laughing) So then he goes on about American Splendor. And he says that his wife hated it. No, didn’t hate the movie, but said that if… Crumb writes, “She said that if I was like that, she never would have married me.” And that she hated the guy who played Crumb. And then he goes onto something else. And I thought to myself, “Wait a minute! Robert Crumb, the famous outspoken curmudgeon, hasn’t said anything about my performance as him! I take that as a compliment!” (laughing) So I like to think… I would hope that he would appreciate it for what it was….
KP: Well, considering he trashed the guy who played him on stage…
URBANIAK: Yeah. Although I found an interview the other day – I actually was reading Suicide Girls, and I read this Zwigoff interview, and Zwigoff didn’t like me in it. But, you know, if I saw a guy playing either my spouse or my best friend in a movie, I’m sure I wouldn’t like it either. Those people are not gonna be satisfied. But I did do my best to make it a fully rounded character. Although I readily admit it is not Robert Crumb the man in real life. How could it be? Although I met Sophie, his daughter, at a comic convention in New York a couple years ago and she was actually quite sweet. And I was at this thing with Bob Sikoryak, and my wife said, “You should go talk to her.” And I was really embarrassed, but I kinda shuffled up to her and said, “I’m that guy who played your dad in American Splendor.” And she said, “Oh! That was really weird!” I said, “I’m sure it was.” And then she said, “But from a couple of angles you really looked like him.” (laughing)
KP: Exactly what an actor wants to hear.
URBANIAK: It was a very nice thing to say. She was extremely sweet. She was very, very pleasant. I’d be pretty self-conscious about meeting the man. Although Harvey Pekar was extremely complimentary about what I did in that.
KP: Who do you want to play you in the film of your life?
URBANIAK: Who do I want to play me? (laughing) Terry Zwigoff, so I can talk about how bad he was! “I’m not that old and short! What the hell? I play much better banjo than that!”
KP: “That’s not the way I pick!”
URBANIAK: Yeah, “That’s not the way I pick! You’ve got it all wrong!” Uh… Charlton Heston.
KP: Just wait.
URBANIAK: (As Heston) “What is this downtown theater world I’m in now? Who is this man?”
KP: “I’m Dr. Venture!”
URBANIAK: “I’m Dr. Venture. Who is this man, this Dr. Venture?” You read Heston’s autobiography? It’s all that. Like, “I’m in the world of apes. I had to ask myself, Who is this man?'” And you think, “Chuck, why do you ask? You’re great, but all the characters are basically the same guy.” He’s a guy who (as Heston) TALKED LIKE THIS!
KP: Did he do an audio book for it?
URBANIAK: I don’t think there is. Hold on, my wife has a question. Everything’s fine, we were just consulting about the babies.
KP: Is everything okay?
URBANIAK: Oh they’re great. My kids, in just the last week, it’s really… when they’re little… they’re four months old, so in the first couple months you’re feeding them around the clock, like every three hours, and now they’re at an age, or month, where they’re now slowly getting into the traditional person’s schedule and sleeping all night. But the thing is, now it’s an issue of, “Do we wake them up to give them an extra feeding around this time, or do we just let them sleep?” ‘Cause they’re getting enough food, it’s just… the question was should we wake them up now and give them a feeding or…
KP: From experience, if they wanted the feeding they would wake themselves up.
URBANIAK: They would wake themselves up if they wanted it and they may well do that, but it could be a half hour from now or it could be three hours from now.
KP: That’s true.
URBANIAK: So, anyway, yes. They’re great.
KP: And quite photogenic, by the way.
URBANIAK: Oh, well, thank you. Well, you know, it’s just a dorky blog thing.
KP: That’s what a blog is for.
URBANIAK: I know!
KP: And it’s your blog.
URBANIAK: It’s my blog! Pictures of my babies. You know, it’s a blog!
KP: No, no, I hope you continue to do that so eventually they go, “Dad why’d you do that?”
URBANIAK: Yes.
KP: “Why are there thousands of websites with photos of us out there?”
URBANIAK: That’s right.
KP: At every conceivable embarrassing, potentially awkward and traumatizing age.
URBANIAK: (laughing).
QS: “Now we have to do Venture Bros. voices for Season 17.”
URBANIAK: Well, they’re the blog infants. Growing up in the blog world. “When I was your age, we didn’t have blogs!”
KP: “I started a blog for you!”
URBANIAK: “… and we liked it.”
KP: You’ll come to that point as a father soon enough. You’ll start the blog for them.
URBANIAK: Yes. “My First Blog.”
KP: As a working actor, are the choices you make different knowing that you now have a family?
URBANIAK: Yeah. I mean, I can’t do plays downtown with my friends that much anymore, because of the time commitment and because I do need to just make money. But I’m happy that I’m making money as an actor and you can each… you know, sort of more commercial opportunities have their own interesting challenges and things. So, you know, things are different, but I’m glad they’re different.
KP: How would you of 20 years ago view you of today?
URBANIAK: Twenty years ago, I probably would have thought I was an admirable fellow. (laughing) I think I would have been… yeah. I think I would have peppered myself with questions about my life in the acting world.
KP: Is there anything you would tell that person of 20 years ago?
URBANIAK: (laughing) Well, the only advice I ever give people is if you want to be an actor, just start acting wherever you are. If you live in a small town, start acting in community theater. Just start acting somewhere. Then if you want to make a living at it, commit to that idea and then do whatever’s necessary to do that, which probably means moving to a major city and getting a day job. And then working at your acting. Because for me, it’s all about choices. Once you’ve made the decision – I’ve said this many times – once you’ve made the decision, you’re kind of over the biggest hump. You’re now committed to doing it. Then all you have to do is do it, and it will work out. And if it doesn’t, it’s because you… I don’t know. What can I say? The only way to do it is to choose to do it.
KP: The one major thing that I did not ask you is was what it was like to be an OBIE Award-winning actor? Was this the play that was held over?
URBANIAK: Ah, well… well, it’s a wonderful pat on the back. You know. I won an OBIE for a play called The Universe 10 years ago. The play that was held over was the play I did last year called Thom Pain, for which I won the “Best Actor Award” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. I was also nominated for a Drama Desk for that.
KP: They probably figured you already had the OBIE so why bother weighing down your mantle?
URBANIAK: Tom Paine was originally supposed to run for a couple of months, and I ended up doing it for seven months, and then it ran another three months after I left with a couple different guys – including T. Ryder Smith, the voice of Baron Ãœnderbheit
KP: Was that his entrée to the series?
URBANIAK: No, he knew the playwright, and he knew me, and he is an old friend of mine, and I recommended T. to Jackson and Doc before I was doing the play.
KP: Who else has come in through the connection with you?
URBANIAK: Almost everybody. I’m the de facto casting director. Steve Rattazzi, who plays Dr. Orpheus, is one of my oldest friends in New York. I’ve known him for almost 20 years. And we’ve been in many plays together, and Jackson knew him, and when he was getting people together he said to me, “What do you think about Steven?” And I said, “Well, of course Steven.” So I heartily approved of Steven’s casting. But then I brought in a bunch of people like Paul Boocock, who does a lot of sort of the utility guys on the show. He does a lot of different voices. And Nina Hellman, who does a lot of the women’s voices, and just did Triana’s friend in the recent episode where they all go on dates.
KP: Right.
URBANIAK: I was doing a play with an actress named Mia Barron at the time I was doing season 1, and I brought her in, and she now does Sally Impossible and Girl Hitler, among others. And then this season, another really old friend of mine in New York who’s episodes haven’t aired yet, there’s a wonderful actress named Joanna Adler, and she does a couple of delightful characters who are coming up. So we’re getting more ladies into the mix, which is good.
KP: She’s in the White House episode, isn’t she?
URBANIAK: Yeah, you know, she did a couple different characters. I know one character I think she plays is Colonel Bud Manstrong’s mother.
KP: That’s the White House dinner episode.
URBANIAK: Yeah. And then she does something else… I forget if she’s actually… there’s a character who may or may not be the Venture mother, but we don’t want to talk too much about that.
KP: No.
URBANIAK: I actually don’t remember if she did that one or not. But yeah, I brought in a bunch of people who I knew from my downtown theater days. And Jackson and Doc love them.
KP: So really, as the popularity of the show grows, you’re not gonna be able to do a project without someone going, “So, can you get me on the show?”
URBANIAK: Yeah. Well, a lot of my friends say that now. They go, “I’d love to do that.” And I do love getting as many people as I can into it.
KP: So, it’s really becoming a cross between Batman and Laugh In.
URBANIAK: (laughing) Yeah. Saying “Sock it to me!”
KP: Imagine if it actually had a catchphrase that people could come in and randomly insert.
URBANIAK: He’s got a couple… kind of like, you know, cartoon celebs. Brendon Small is… of course Stephen Colbert. He’s kind of the biggest name, I think.
KP: H. Jon Benjamin, this season.
URBANIAK: Exactly, yeah. So yeah, I’ve brought in a bunch of people.
KP: Are you looking forward to season three?
URBANIAK: Well, I am. I hear it’s likely, so I hope that happens.
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